In Ras al-Ain, Kurds inflict a heavy blow against anti-Assad
Islamist fighters. Caught between rebels and the regime, the Kurds
have set up their own People's Protection Units.

Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies): Syria's civil war could be further complicated by
a third player intervening in the already complex rebel
patchwork fighting Assad. Along the Turkish border, Kurds
fighting to protect their territory in northeastern Syria
inflicted a crushing defeat on the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra
Front. The clash between Kurdish fighters and jihadists erupted
after Al-Nusra Front attacked a convoy of Kurdish fighters.

Local sources said that at least nine jihadists
were killed in Ras al-Ain, a strategically important Kurdish
area on the border between Syria and Turkey used by foreign
fighters to swell rebel ranks in the struggle against the
regime.

Kurdish
fighters took total control of Ras al-Ain "after 24 hours of
fighting. The (jihadist) groups were expelled from the whole of
Ras al-Ain, including the border post" with Turkey, one source
said.

People's
Protection Units (YPG) are the armed wing of the Democratic
Union Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish political party.

Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011,
Syria's Kurdish minority has always defended its own interests.

Set up for this purpose, People's Protection
Units have kept away from both the rebel cause and the regime,
holding a neutral position or opposing both sides depending on
circumstances.